By the Numbers

22 Jump Street Beats How to Train Your Dragon 2 at Weekend Box Office

“As if spending twice the money guarantees twice the profits,” scoffs Ice Cube early on in 22 Jump Street, in one of the sequel’s many, many jokes about how dumb it is to be a sequel. But hey, joke’s on you, Ice Cube! 22 Jump Street opened to almost exactly twice the box office of 21 Jump Street, making $60 million over the weekend in North America alone. (The first film, also starring Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill, opened to $36 million 2012.)

That put it well ahead of How to Train Your Dragon 2, an impressive accomplishment for an R-rated comedy that inherently can’t draw in nearly as wide an audience as a family-friendly animated sequel. Dragon did just fine for itself, with a $50 million opening that’s the best for DreamWorks Animation in two years. As Fox distribution chief Chris Aronson points out to The Hollywood Reporter, there’s not another animated film coming until Planes: Fire % Rescue on July 18, so Dragon essentially has family audiences to itself as summer break begins.

As a whip-smart sequel that even dares to get a little gay, 22 Jump Street is pretty much the best-case scenario if you accept that summer-movie season will be littered with sequels and franchises whether you like it or not. And as a second chance for Channing Tatum, whose previous summer blockbuster was such a disappointment they even joked about it in 22 Jump Street, it’s even more welcome. Now who’s ready for 23 Jump Street: Medical School?